FiringSquad reviews AMD Athlon FX-62 and Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Socket AM2 CPUs
It’s been a long time since we’ve written about a new AMD part that didn’t sport the FX moniker, just over 12 months to be exact. On May 7th, 2005, we first introduced you to AMD’s new dual-core Athlon 64 X2 lineup, since then AMD’s introduced only one additional X2 processor, the Athlon 64 X2 3800, a chip which AMD had no plans for initially, the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ only went into production after AMD received an overwhelming outcry from the public for a cheaper X2 processor.
Despite the lack of new processor introductions from AMD, demand hasn’t stopped for their Athlon 64 X2 processors, in fact if anything demand has only picked up. Last month AMD even raised prices on some of their processors slightly. And now Dell plans to integrate AMD’s Opteron line into some of their servers later this year. Make no mistake about it, this isn’t the same AMD of six years ago that was often forced to compete on price with Intel, AMD is now in the enviable position of market leader when it comes to performance and power consumption, while Intel counters by pricing their dual-core processors at bargain-bin prices. On Newegg.com right now Intel’s Pentium D 805 can be found for less than $130, while the Pentium D 820 sells for under $185. In comparison AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 3800+ is priced at $297: you can buy two Pentium D 805’s for the price of just one X2 3800!
But the lack of new Athlon 64 X2 processor introductions from AMD over the course of the past year doesn’t mean AMD hasn’t been up to something. The company is about to embark on a brand new 65-nm manufacturing process and introduce a newer generation of Athlon 64 CPUs based on a tweaked K8 architecture. But before those chips are introduced AMD’s got one other big project to tackle: the DDR2 transition...
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